Interview with Tzimon Barto: Languages, Poetry and Education [by Lera Auerbach]

 I am always fascinated by people who are masters of more than one profession.  I interviewed Tzimon Barto for the Best American Poetry blog. His passions and knowledge run deep. Tzimon Barto speaks seven languages fluently, reads ancient Greek, Latin, and Hebrew; his love of poetry is contagious, his ideas about education are inspiring.

      

For a taste of Barto's music-making here he is performing Mozart's Rondo for Piano and Orchestra in A major with the SWR Symphonieorchester and Christoph Eschenbach.

 

Comments

[Emily Fragos]

I very much enjoyed the informed interview on poetry and the formal music-making of Mr. Barto. I particularly relished his reading of the Greek in translation and in the original with its beautiful musicality and sound texture. I am reminded of Wislawa Szymborska's great poem about the deaths of children, "Return Baggage," in which the poet struggles to find language to match the depths of the tragedy. She concludes by saying, "Only stony Greek has words for that." I have never forgotten that poem or its stunning ending.